Cost of a better education may include overhead

Critics accuse City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Cheryl Hyman of building a massive downtown bureaucracy at the expense of the individual colleges. Ms. Hyman says she is consolidating services and imposing modern accounting practices on the seven-college system.

On top of that, Ms. Hyman says, she balanced her budget without raising taxes.

Budget documents put district office spending at $65.3 million in fiscal 2013, which began in July. That's up 36 percent from the $48 million spent in fiscal 2010, when Ms. Hyman took office. The seven college budgets grew an average of 12 percent over the same period.

Most of the added headquarters expense has come from new hires; salaries and benefits are at $55.3 million in the 2013 budget, compared with $29 million in 2010. Of the 130 City Colleges employees paid more than $100,000, 75 work in the district office. Ms. Hyman hired 20 of the 28 employees who make at least $125,000. Except for the seven college presidents, all work in the district office. Ms. Hyman's salary is $250,000.

“We used to think the downtown office was filled with cronyism, and no one expected anyone to do anything,” says Sheldon Liebman, chairman of the humanities department at Wilbur Wright College on the Northwest Side. “But now they want to make all the decisions and second-guess everything we do.”

The chancellor leaned heavily on consultancy McKinsey & Co. and the Civic Consulting Alliance to create her Reinvention strategy, paying New York-based McKinsey $500,000 in fiscal 2011, records show. She then hired some of those consultants for key positions. Alvin Bisarya worked for McKinsey and the Renaissance Schools Fund before signing on as vice chancellor of strategy and institutional intelligence, at a salary of $145,000. (Mr. Bisarya left City Colleges earlier this month.)

Critics accuse Chancellor Cheryl Hyman of building a massive downtown bureaucracy at the expense of the individual colleges. Ms. Hyman counters that she's merely consolidating services and implementing a modern accounting system. GO

Spending on outside law firms — several that had long business relationships with City Hall under Mayor Richard M. Daley — has doubled since 2010. City Colleges General Counsel James Reilly was an aide to Mr. Daley before joining the school five years ago. GO

Sameer Gadkaree, a former McKinsey staff member, is now interim vice chancellor for adult education, at $104,700. Donald Laackman, president of Harold Washington College, who earns $140,000, hails from the Civic Consulting Alliance, the pro bono consulting arm of the Commercial Club of Chicago. He also was a managing partner at Accenture LLP, another adviser to Ms. Hyman.

Ms. Hyman has had a few stumbles. Her first chief of staff, Ronny Anderson, was forced out last year after the Better Government Association revealed that he had falsified a Chicago address to comply with City Colleges' residency requirement. Ms. Hyman allowed him to retire.

In August, City Colleges hired James Hartung, former director of Ohio's Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, to direct the vocational College to Careers program at Olive-Harvey College on the Far South Side. Mr. Hartung was fired 12 days later, after Crain's revealed his 2008 dismissal from the port authority for having an extramarital relationship with the agency's lobbyist.